It’s no surprise that I’m a huge thrift store shopper. I have no shame at all, claiming I love secondhand chic items. Some people call it trash, other call it treasures. And that’s what I love about it. The thrift store hunt, is not only the bargain prices you get, but also the amazing items you find during the hunt. In this post, I’ll share with you my favorite items I gravitate towards, and items I’ve been currently obsessing about……

Goodwill is my go to thrift store at the moment. Back in the Bay Area, I had more options, like St. Vincent de Paul, The Hope Station, EcoThrift, and also ThriftTown. Not only that, but just along within Berkeley & Oakland alone, had a few neighborhood antique/thrift shops I loved visiting.

When shopping at the Goodwill, I always get myself a cart. Knowing, I love love love love love me some glassware. Pulling around those dinky pull basket carts doesn’t do it for a thrift store shopper like myself. I gather, gather, gather, then shave off at the end.

HOUSEWARES is my main target at the thrift store. Item’s I’m ALWAYS aiming to buy include:

Glassware (Champagne Glass, Cups, Ornate Bowls, Mugs)

Serving Trays

Picture Frames

Bedding (I’ve found plenty of great printed pillowcases -Target/Ikea Brands, to name a few..)

Window Coverings

In the picture above, I was able to find a brand new window sheer covering (2 shades included), for $3 (Retail usually costs $14-$25 @JCPenny/Target)

Other awesome items I’ve been picking up lately are great glassware kitchen pieces. I scored a octagon shaped glass bowl, made from France, a Cost Plus World Market printed mug, and also an Anthropologie mint shade glass cup all between the costs of $0.95 to $1.19.

FYI: Anthropologie’s glassware can run $10-$12 a pop, for a single cup alone!!

Everything you see in the car above only costs me $23!!

A few items I’ve been super obsessing about are Blue Willow China, and candlesticks. I’ve been following a few creative minds on instagram and the usage of candle sticks, lit a flame within me!! The simple look of antique gold with a simple wax tall candle stick, brought a new perspective to me to decorate my home.

Within the months of November to December, I’ve literally purchased about 12 candle sticks, and have scattered them around my home. The prices of these lovely candle sticks could range me from $1.99-$3.19 each. All pretty affordable, for the great detail and impact in brings as I style with them.

As for Blue Willow China, I was inspired by Mary Elizabeth on YouTube. A professional interior decorator & stylist, with the coolest taste!!

I’ve been following Mary Elizabeth for a few years now, and I can honestly say, she is one of the few channel’s that got me going to pursue my YouTube channel. I mean, I know I haven’t contributed to my YT in awhile, but I’ll get there. Give a girl break, I’ve been focusing so hard on this blog, as well as my family here in Sacramento, that it does become a little difficult to handle another social platform. ANYWHO! Enough with the excuses. Back to Blue Willow China!! –After getting inspired, I was obsessing over it on Craigslist, Ebay, even Etsy. All platforms offered great amounts of blue willow china. And then I said, “well, what about the thrift store………”

Storing family video and photos can be very overwhelming. I get it. With today’s technology it can get pretty messy, if you’re not to comfortable trusting the cloud or internet. Many of the older generation, tend to get intimidated by technology. Trust me, my mom asks me to post her photos on her Facebook.

Here I’m going to share with you my process on archiving all my family photos and videos. Since having my first child in 2007, I first starting using Snapfish. Its a web-based photo sharing and photo printing service, where I’ve been storing all my photos, and also sharing them via email with family and friends.

*******Note, I’m no super tech saavy genius. This is just a process that works for me, and I’ve definitely grown along the way! So if you have a process that works for you, stick with it! This is just a process I’d like to share and hopefully inspire others who hasn’t created a system for archiving important digital family memories!******

My Family Photo/Video Archiving Process:

UploadFrom anywhere your photos and videos are on, a point and shoot camera, DSLR, iPhone, iPad, upload and transfer your precious videos and photos to your home based computer. This system works for me on my iMac, it’s my headquarters for all my memories. I find it easier to transfer all my footage onto one machine, vs. having footage stored on multiple devices around the house.

Organize in iPhoto & Desktop
ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE. I’m very particular as I archive my footage. From separating all my events, “EJ’s Birthday,” “Lily’s Baptism,” “Picnic At The Park,” even if all those events happened in one day. I separate them! It may be a lot of work, and time consuming, but it’s worth it. Everything will be easy to find within your folders, and also, as they are carefully split and dated in your chosen photo storage site.

Snapfish/Costco
Since I found out I was having a baby, late 2006 I started storing my photos on Snapfish. It was a safe place to upload and share. This was before storing things on the cloud. To he honest, I don’t really use the cloud to store my photos and videos. Snapfish tends to scale down the photo to a weaker quality, but I’ve been storing all my photos here, there’s no turning back now. (I’m just stuck in my ways.)Costco has been a safe family favorite. Many of my family members have Costco, and use their photo center. I remember the days when my mom and I would bring all the film rolls and fill out a whole bunch of envelopes right after a family vacation or during the summer. We would be outside filling out the envelopes and seal them ready to develop and pick-up in a week. Nowadays, there is no need to do that. We can just upload from the comfort of our home, and pick-up as soon as a few hours, at a cheap price!

Video Clips, imported to iMovie
We all take videos on our mobile devices— from our camera phone, using SnapChat, to Facebook Video. Point and shoot cameras have been my go to electronic to capture all the precious moments I share with my family. Video editing has been a new found hobby of mine. I’ve been recording snippets of our lives for so long, that now it’s time to compile them into video. There are days when I get soo overwhelmed with the heavy archive of digital moments just sitting on my desktop, that I spend countless hours in the night, just editing family videos. (No. Really.)Here’s my process of editing video to the upload, and sharing them with family.

Record

Save

Edit (I just use iMovie which is a movie editing application that came with my iMac)

Upload to private* or public Youtube account.I’d prefer having a private account, becuase I’m sure not everyone wants their private lives exposed for the internet world to see.

Categorize to playlists.From Travel, to Sports, School related, to Dance Recitals. You name it, you catergorize it! I simply have Family Travel, monthly vlogs, and two separate playlists for each of my boys.

Share with family and friendsThere’s nothing better than sharing your family video via email. Send the link over to grandma and grandpa, and have them see what the kids are up to via Youtube! (Using a shared link.)

Aside from my Tiffany’s Tidings Youtube channel, I created another public channel, focused towards my family travel. A new lifestyle that we’ve adapted to since moving to Sacramento. Since our family is back in the Bay Area, the family and I travel back and forth every month to visit. As we do so, I record as the boys and I travel and discover our old hometown, and surrounding cities.

If you’re interested in seeing our travels from Sacramento to San Francisco, come check out my channel! If you like what you see, hit the thumbs up button and subscribe!!

Chromecast on a Friday night!!!The family and I love checking our family Youtube at the end of every month. If* mommy is consistent making videos, the kids simply queue it up, and Chromecast it to the tv.

How do you categorize your family footage? What this process helpful to anyone? Or possibly similar? Comment below! I’d love to hear how other parents keep and organize all their family movies and pics!

I’m almost done with a with my Msdebramaye wedding series! I have a couple for videos to edit, but due check out my current channel which I have created a Styling Playlist for! That’s where you will be able to see all the decorative pieces I’ve used at #DelmundoVowRenewal. All from my personal inventory, highly rustic influenced, and some part of my household decor! Click the image or link to see more!

It’s a complimentary platform, perfect to my blog! Some posts, just work well with video footage, and other times I just don’t feel like writing! So come visit my channel! Give it a thumbs up, like and subscribe! It is in the early stage of my channel, but I strive to improve upon it, lighting, audio, and video editing! But so far, I’m having fun with the process of it all!

Let’s Get Social!

I’m so excited to share the next upcoming videos! To be honest, the first couple of YouTube videos were uncomfortable for me to make. But, I’m trusting in my skills, and my creative energy I have to communicate and share my creativeness with all of you! Please do stay tuned for the upcoming Msdebramaye wedding day series!!

I love decorating. Interior decorating, staging, styling a party, decorating my patio, to the extremes of organizing my garage in a decorative manner. Now, I love all styles of art, and themes of special occasions, but one theme and interest I gravitate towards is the rustic style.

Rustic style feels honest and pure. Simple, and natural. Because they celebrate the art of repurposing, they provide a wonderful showcase for creativity. In a world where so much is virtual, rustic style is boldly, and raw.

If you love rustic…. You were happiest playing in the mud as a kid. Pigtails, treehouse lounging, and camping were your thing! You can’t bring yourself to throw away packing crates or burlap sacks. You sleep in your mans old flannel shirts.

Rustic weddings are heartwarming, sweet, diverse, creative and so much more.. Just like vintage style weddings, rustic weddings are filled with textures, natural organics. Not only that, there are so many different varieties of some fabulous rustic weddings including:

Some more key elements that were integrated in the rustic theme were glamorous, vintage, handmade, and DIY. All key elements were definitely shown in the handmade ring bearer’s pillow I made. At first, I thought, oh! Easy! Burlap! But Debra Maye requested for a silk like ivory material. Here’s what I was able to purchased from my local crafts store in the left over scraps/ remnant basket. Checking out fabric from the remnant selection is one of the key places to check out for any crafter!

rem·nant

ˈremnənt

noun: a small remaining quantity of something.

I am absolutely no seamstress, but I was able to get buy. It wasn’t perfect, but my stitching skills are somewhat there. I was able to find some fabulous elegant bridal lace, as well as pairing it was a beautiful silk flower and ribbon to hold the couples rings. This was my first time undergoing a ring bearer pillow. Not bad right?

Follow me on my YouTube channel to see more of the finished pieces I was able to do for Msdebramaye’s wedding! I’ll be posting firsthand footage of her special day from, this mornings set-up, to vlog footage right before walking down the aisle!

My last post was about a failed business I once was apart of. Needless to say, things took its own course, and I found better opportunities that work for me, my creativity, and my family. The business and partnership may have failed, but my natural ability to style events is this there. I’ve mentioned in a previous post I’ve collaborated with YouTuber, MsDebraMaye. (Read more about how we connected HERE.)

In just two days MsDebraMaye will finally be having her church wedding (#delmundovowrenewal). I’ve already started the floral arrangements, miscellaneous decorative props, and have addressed other styling needs. She’s requested for:

-Ring Bearer’s Pillow,

-2 Flower Girl Goodie Baskets (for two adorable twins),

-Guest Seating Arrangement Display

-Chalk Signage

-Day Of Coordinating/Design

Besides that hefty list of to-dos I still have get to put it all together at the venue the night before, along with chapel dress rehearsal

with the bridal party!

Now, you may be wondering, why don’t I serve as my own business by myself since people do go to me for these things. It’s actually complicated to explain. I genuinely love styling, but it’s something I don’t entirely want to breathe. I do have a garage full of rustic and vintage like pieces for any imaginable party out there, but it’s not fully me. I appreciate styling, but I’m working on something more……

(It’s that a great cliff hanger?) Stay tuned.

I stand at a point of my life, were I just want to focus on creative collaborating, and pushing my own original content. I’ll serve to those who do understand my worth, and know where I’m coming from. I’m very selective with those who approach me, and sometimes don’t even mention anything unless asked about it. #StayHumble I don’t market myself with all my crafty things on my personal Facebook page, or Instagram accounts for a reason. That’s why I have my own blog. It’s my personal corner of the internet which I own, and can create and share.

I’m well aware not everyone is into what I do.This is a natural journey for me. Come watch:

YouTube is the resource for simple how-to videos, and real entertainment, made by real people with no long commercials (compared to cable television). YouTube is my main source of entertainment, from DIY crafts, thrift store hauls, furniture facelifts, just to name a few. I gravitate towards my hobbies, and watch people to share the same interest.

I’ve been in close contact with fellow Beauty YouTuber Msdebramaye for the past year… If you’re not familiar with Msdebramaye, you can check out her YouTube Channel HERE. If you like clear, understandable, coherent, open reviews, and tutorials on make-up and beauty, Msdebramaye is definitely for you! I’ve collaborated with Debramaye and have hit record.

I’m huge on signs. When I get some sort of indirect sign or signal from the universe, I capitalize on it. Something I’ve been trusting fate with as I’m getting older. Yes, it sounds crazy, but I’ve noticed signs, and at times I didn’t take advantage of it. I’ve gotten a huge sign from a fellow YouTuber I’ve met online. After purely contacting her about something so simple, now has bummeranged back to me to asking for her help in styling her wedding!!! Its something in my eyes has come with purpose, to prepare me for something challenging, as well as creative and stimulating for me to try…..So I’ve decided to hit record, and film my collaboration with Msdebramaye in preparation to her wedding day!

Please stay tuned as I plan to share a whole LOT of stuff I’m passionate about! If you like what you see on my blog, and want more of my crafts, motherhood tips, household organization, and just celebrating life’s simple joys thumbs up, like, and subscribe!!!

My entire Journey To 30, consists of quite a few things…And I believe YouTube is a tiny part of it. I’ve done quite a ton of research and played around with iMovie, enough to understand it. I love the challenge that it brings, and love what YouTube is all about, so I plan to be apart of this golden era of online video. Since my first video, its something I can’t stop thinking about. So I plan to NOT stop working for it.

I like to follow signs, and I love how in todays age everything you want to learn about you can get for free on the internet. I’ve closely been following Video Influencers on YouTube. Created by Benji Travis, husband and manager of ItsJudyTime and Sean Cannell (Creator of THiNK International) will help build your influence and your income with YouTube and online video. Online Video, is something I totally believe in, and currently willing to take a chance and become that “X-Facor,” as a way to provide for my family, hopefully pay off school loans (Boo SallieMae!!!), and also have a financial and stable future.

Video Influencers will help bring you Top YouTubers, Video Creators, and Entrepreneurs that are getting real results with Video. You’ll learn the secrets, mindsets, tips and best advice all from them through their experiences and other YouTube successors. I’ve been watching YouTube since day ONE!!! Back in 2006, I remember, I was in my room at my parents house, and 20 year old girl getting ready for my retail job at The Limited. I wanted to look up some make-up looks, and so I searched on YouTube. Since then, YouTube as obviously grown into something like no other. I don’t even watch cable TV anymore!! Strictly, YouTube & Netflix.

If you follow me on Twitter, I’ve mentioned about drop down hints of what I’m getting myself into. I’ve even started following Video Influencers on Twitter, and they were happy to follow me back!! (Little girl sequels!) Yes! Super crazy, but I believe I can achieve greatness in this online video community. I believe in signs. And I’m willing to take a chance in this. It’s all about consistency, the motivation, and willingness. I am no scared what I once was about YouTube, and willing to take a full swing at it!!

I definitely feel the love Sean Cannell!! Thank you!!!

More love on Instagram!

Some Questions:

“But Tiffany, why now?”

I’ve been thinking about YouTubing for the longest time. I’ve watched many YouTubers who are just like me, and I build a connection with them. I actively comment, and they comment back. I create discussions, suggestions, and also an online relationship with other moms/communities. A digital support group is really what it is.

I’ve been blessed to be a stay @ home since I was 24 years old. My youngest is finally going to school, and I am now released from the obligation during the day to care for him. I now have time. Bottom line, and I want to try new things and keep busy.

“What stopped you before?”

Fear. Lack of self confidence. I wasn’t sure I was good enough to do it. I thought YouTube was always over crowded, and I didn’t think people would like my niche of interest.

“What will your YouTube Channel be about?”

Life & family. Me being ME.

I’m a hodge podge of things. I honestly like a little bit of everything. So sharing my unique eclectic style is something I believe will attract others like me.

Also, the timeline of life has always been my main uniqueness of me and my family. I’ve been with my highschool sweetheart for about 15 years, have children, moving around like gypsy’s, traveling, enjoying old fashion simplicities of life.

We’re not married. And we’re figuring out whats next in life. A new home? Moving out of California (Bay Area?) More kids? Finally plan a wedding?

“Are you scared about the negative hate comments?”

I am. But it’s a part of the job I guess. Use that negative energy as fuel to be better. As a joke, I always think of the hater on the otherside of the screen as a bored fat adult, unhappy with his/her life, pretending to be a lost teen online. Haha. Mean. But sorry, you made a mean nasty comment to me, so this is what I think of you. LOL.

I just hope I can just inspire people, my viewers, whoever wants to watch. I intend to bring some sort of positive love through the screen, because that obviously is what that person who made negative comments needs.

“Will you still be blogging?”

Of course! Blogging is my online diary, and it fitting to have a complimentary YouTube channel wouldn’t you agree?

There you have it! I’m jumping into YouTube!!!!! Totally taking a full swing at this. I now have the drive, confidence, and creative content to share with others, that I believe will attract those like me.

Meet Tiffany

Bay Area raised Gemini, trying to juggle the life as a stay-at-home mom, a designer, DIY'er, and creative entrepreneur. I find it all challenging, inspiring, discouraging, hopeful, difficult, and wonderful all at the same time!
Read More…

Search for:

Facebook Posts

Defined by its ornate handles and oval silhouette, this lovely metal serving tray ups the ante of your favorite aesthetic. This trays gold finish adds shimming style to your favorite color prattle, while its mirrored design is sure to draw the eye. Perfectly placed on this vintage dresser, this tray is ideal for catching small trinkets and adds personal charm to your decor. #SimplicityIsKey #HomeDecor #Airbnb ✌🏽🌿🍃 ... See MoreSee Less